Victorian health

10 of the World's Deadliest Plants — And How They Kill You. The predator must also, for some reason or another, want to continue to pursue this plant for the toxicity to go so high.

Additionally, why this particular poison for that plant? Evolution, fascinating, indeed. I do wonder if any of these are actually the predator. Maybe, the prey provide something that helps promulgates their genes. Fascinating, indeed. A lot of plant toxins are geared towards insects. (If you're a plant trying to fend off a moose, poison doesn't do you as much good, because the moose is so big that by the time your poison kills it, the moose has already destroyed you and 15-20 minutes worth of your neighbors. Since insects and mammals share a common (nerve- and muscle-endowed) evolutionary ancestor, there's a fair number of chemicals that can disrupt systems in both groups.
10 Happy Accidents from the Annals of Drug Discovery. Powdered Mummy, Gladiator Blood, and other Historical Medicines Made from Human Corpses. I was thinking the same.

I would love to watch the creation of such a pattern. I wonder how? Is it not just a square weave, like some call a 'god's eye?
' Now that I see it in my mind's eye (and having made them from yarn and bamboo as a kid)... YES. Good call, for sure. Besides the intrinsic beauty of the pattern, it makes me think about the material culture and funereal practices in Egypt during the Ptolemaic period... the position in society of embalmers is sort of a dodgy one; either they were seen as outcasts for the sacriligious practices of molesting the royalty's remains, or exalted to a degree since they were doing Inpu's work (for lack of a better term).

Funeral rites and such changing over time, it just makes me wonder about the mentality of the actual embalmer. And thanks again!
Bite Down on a Stick: The History of Anesthesia. Nine Stubborn Brain Myths That Just Won't Die, Debunked by Science. Are allergies for real?
I don't think Celiac disease is an allergy.

There are people who are allergic to wheat or gluten, but their reactions are quite different. A coworker and I both have Celiac. We are both mostly Irish and Scottish, and there seems to be some family history. It's interesting that during WWII in the UK, wheat was mostly limited to the soldiers, so families made do with other grains; the cases of chronic diarrhea among the civilian population dropped hugely during this time. So, there's definitely a genetic factor, but I think there are additional factors that are resulting in greater numbers of Celiac sufferers and in the number of people developing wheat and/or gluten allergies: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. So, we're heavily exposed to it whether we realize it or not, in a manner that our evolution did not appear us for.

From "Irritable Heart" to "Shellshock": How Post-Traumatic Stress Became a Disease. How do smelling salts work?
The Many Ways Science Has (Wrongly) Assessed Your Personality.